Wednesday, October 8, 2014

Food Intolerances and Autism

I've been asked if I can explain how food intolerances can cause issues for people on the Autism spectrum. Some of you are being fed misinformation that Autism is actually caused by toxins, gut bacteria and nutritional deficiencies. While any of these can exacerbate the sensory issues associated with Autism, they are not the cause of it. Autism can NOT be cured simply by changing a person's diet or giving them a detox program. At the most, you can alleviate the symptoms if a person does have a food intolerance, which in turn can make life easier for them by giving them one less discomfort to worry about. Discomforts which could be getting in the way of their ability to learn as they grow and mature by causing a constant internal annoyance or distraction.

Here's how it works:
Some people on the Autism spectrum have certain food intolerances, the same way as some people who are not on the Autism spectrum have the same food intolerances. Each person on the spectrum is as unique as an individual who is not on the spectrum, so some have issues with certain foods while others don't. In the case of a person on the Autism spectrum, the sense of discomfort from having a food intolerance can either be enhanced or it can be less noticeable compared to people with the same food intolerances who aren't on the spectrum. If the person on the spectrum who has the food intolerance is in discomfort, then it can consume their entire lives and actually get in the way of day to day learning and coping. Remove the foods that are causing the issue, and the discomfort will also be removed which frees the person's mind up for getting on with more important things, such as life skill development.

Will removing food groups help everyone on the Autism spectrum?
No. It will only benefit those who are having issues with the food types that were removed in the first place, the same as anyone who is not on the spectrum will only benefit from having food groups removed if they are actually intolerant to the foods being removed.

Picture it this way: Person A is on the Autism spectrum and has a gluten intolerance. Person B is also on the spectrum but does not have a gluten intolerance. Giving person A foods with gluten in them is going to cause them discomfort and will probably make life a little more harder to cope with. Removing the gluten will help this person because it's alleviating the discomfort of the symptoms of being gluten intolerant. Giving person B foods with gluten in them is not going to cause any issues, so there is no need to restrict them to a gluten free diet as it will have no benefit to them whatsoever. In fact, many people on the spectrum are incredibly fussy eaters, so restricting their diet further than they already try to restrict it themselves is not exactly making life easy for anyone, especially if they don't have an intolerance to warrant the restrictions being made in the first place.

What Causes Autism?
Autism begins at the moment of conception. It is caused by physical abnormalities in the brain structure. Whilst some parts of the brain for an individual on the spectrum contain excessive amounts of grey matter, other parts are lacking in grey matter. The areas that are in excess have to compensate for the areas that are lacking. The corpus callosum is also smaller for individuals on the spectrum, this restricts the flow of information between the left and right hemispheres of the brain. On top of this, the brain cells which would ordinarily die off from lack of use as an individual grows and learns do not appear to die off so readily for people on the spectrum This means that the brain is in a current state of learning, even after a permanent connection between two brain cells has been established as the best possible combination, the redundant cells are failing to step aside. NONE of this is caused by stomach bacteria or food intolerances. NONE of this can be cured by removing food groups or toxins or stomach bacteria. The best you can do is to identify IF there is an intolerance. If there is, then by all means, restrict the foods that are causing the intolerance. It will benefit the individual by removing an internal sensory issue. If there is NOT an intolerance, then DON'T torture the person by removing something that they'll actually be happy to eat! The best way to get a person on the spectrum to learn and grow at their own pace is to ensure they have as happy and as stress free an environment as is physically and emotionally possible to give them. Causing excess stress is NOT beneficial to their abilities to cope with the world.

So what should I do to help?
If you have a person in your care who is on the Autism spectrum and they DO have an intolerance to certain foods, you can help them by getting them used to eating foods that aren't going to cause them some kind of stress. In this case, restricting their diet will be beneficial in the long run.

If they DO NOT have an intolerance to certain foods, you can help them by NOT restricting their diet, especially if it's going to cause stress by force feeding them something that they don't like because it's blander than normal.

How should I respond to fanatics?
If you find someone who insists that Autism is caused by food intolerances and gut issues, you may find yourself hitting your head against a brick wall when they refuse to believe otherwise. Some people can't help themselves and once they've made their mind up, there's no swaying them regardless of how much factual information is offered to them. Don't stress yourself out over them too much. Have your say then move on, knowing that you've given your opinion and others who might be a part of the conversation as observers have heard your side of the argument. You can't help everyone, but you can help to give input into an otherwise one sided debate, and that in itself can help people to make up their minds for themselves.

Having said all this, I'll most likely be trolled by anti-vaccer fanatics and food intolerance fanatics after they've read this particular blog post. My policy on trolls is to not feed them no matter what they say. So if anyone wants to get on their soap box and tell the world how much of a horrible person I am for writing this blog, do so with the knowledge that I don't really care what you think or say. I'm happy with my post just the way it is and it won't be changed because of some cyber-bully trying to force everyone to follow their own wildly inaccurate misinformation.

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